here are addictions that destroy lives and then there are the ones that merely rearrange the furniture in your garage. Michael Cooper’s brand of obsession falls squarely into the latter. He’s not chasing a high that comes from a needle or a bottle; his fix comes wrapped in steel, lacquered in Axalta Marina Blue, and armed with enough horsepower to stir the soul.

“I’ll admit it,” Michael laughs. “I might have an addiction to Chevelles. Any year from the ’60s through the early ’70s works for me. I just finished this ’69, and now I’m into a ’70 El Camino 454. I guess that’s a Chevelle pickup, right? On top of that, I’ve got five more waiting their turn in line for restoration.”

That’s not exactly the statement of a man seeking recovery, but there’s no need for an intervention here. The worst side effect of Michael’s habit is a tendency to grin uncontrollably when the LS7 clears its throat.

t’s good to have friends—and if one of those friends happens to have a 1967 Corvette project that’s been sitting stagnant for years, well, that’s even better. That’s how this C2 Corvette ended up in the hands of current owner Dan Gernstein, a fiberglass manufacturer from Omaha, Nebraska. His buddy had lost interest in restoring the car and offered it up to Dan, who had ideas of his own for the neglected project.

“When I bought the car, it was basically just a body and frame,” Dan says. “It took me a while to get motivated, knowing it was going to be a fairly big job and I needed to put together a solid plan with an idea on the build style to go with.”

That “while” turned out to be about 15 years. During that time, the Corvette collected a little dust and a lot of potential. Eventually, Dan’s vision started to take shape: keep the body as original-looking as possible but subtly stretch those classic lines to fit some serious modern muscle underneath. The rear quarter-panels were widened 2 1/2 inches to accommodate meaty tires, and that single modification hinted at the direction the entire build would take—classic form with unapologetic function.

hen it comes to muscle cars, some enthusiasts exercise brand loyalty while others claim to stand behind no specific team. Frank Wolf is a self-proclaimed “Ford guy” but even he admits his loyalty begins to blur whenever a Chevelle rolls by. “I was turned onto Chevelles by my buddy Mike in high school,” Frank recalls. “He was an avid car guy who had a couple of them. He had a blown big-block ’69 that I helped him work on back in the day, and that was the beginning of my love for Chevelles.”

ome guys just know how to build a performance-packed Chevy from the ground up. Many of them have been featured here in All Chevy Performance magazine, and rightfully so. However, some guys just keep poppin’ up on our radar, so we oblige by checking out their latest builds.

When this stunning Tri-Five started struttin’ its stuff at some of the major shows, we had to investigate and see what all the fuss was about. What we found out was that the owner was no stranger to our pages, as a few years back his magnificent 1972 Chevelle was featured in the Aug. ’21 issue. Turns out it was Matt Cirocco behind the wheel of this beast, and the Massapequa, New York, resident was more than happy to fill us in on his new, power-packed street machine.

ohn Jackson fell in love with Camaros while in college and owned a lot of them over the years, ranging from numerous first-gens to a 2010 SS and 2014 RS. “I have enjoyed them because they were easy to build and didn’t cost a bunch,” he tells us. “I always owned small-blocks and was fearful of big-blocks because they were expensive and harder to maintain, but one day at a show I heard one start up, and wow! I had to have one. It took 40 years before that dream came true.”

John’s big-block odyssey began in 2013, when he got wind of a derelict ’69 SS396 coupe in Northern New York. “It was a rust bucket,” he recalls, “a big project that was going to take years to reconstruct, but it was a real SS396, so I bought it.”

John left the 396 engine with Camaro Specialties to be rebuilt and went full steam ahead on the body himself. He removed the subframe and had it sandblasted and powdercoated by Action Powder Coating in Huntington, New York. Both rusty fenders were replaced with originals from a donor car. John cut out the rusty floor and quarter-panels and welded new ones in. The trunk floor extensions were replaced but, surprisingly, the trunk was solid enough to save. After replacing all the rusty steel, fitting the doors and front end, and massaging the body surfaces to perfection, John primed and painted his ’69 the original Rallye Green hue.

he drag-and-drive scene is more than just a fad. The concept of drag racing your car and driving it to the next track on repeat is growing in popularity, and there are many events all over the country that give gearheads a special experience. Tom Bailey hosts a series of events under his Sick Week branding. Along with his annual event that occurs in Florida and Georgia during the winter, he hosts one-off events in other parts of the country. One such example is the Edelbrock Sick Smokies event, a special race that travels through the hills of Alabama, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia, stopping at old-school, eighth-mile dragstrips along the way.